Hang on here just a sec. While I agree wholeheartedly that for some people the driving force behind religion is to fill a need, I would suggest that your question is framed on a tilt. There are those for whom it is a matter of discovery or simple experience of part of the world.

You can squirm on that hook all you want, but for some people experience is a bit richer than plain physical sensations. The "body-is-all school" of thought may dismiss anything not so perceived as "superstition". But to do is to surely make a superstition out of materiality, one which forbids understanding the creative power of the individual. Furthermore, the purely materialist school of thought leaves precious little room for any ethics except profit, and justifies war at will, random destruction, and mud.

A